I am not a lawyer or an accountant so please do not construe this as legal or tax advice. However, friends do not let friends leave their estates to probates, so let’s just say I am your friend.
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| Trust Sale in Palo Alto |
As a realtor who specializes in Probate and Trust sales, it does not matter to me whether the estate is being probated, or passed down through a trust. But it does matter to the heirs, especially now that the estate tax will kick in after a million dollars starting in January, unless Congress and the administration change it. How likely is that? They can not even agree to have dinner together so changing the estate tax exemption any time soon is unlikely.
So as of Jan. 1, 2011 when you die your heirs can get the first one million dollars of your estate tax free, but anything above that will be taxed at 55%. So let’s say you have a home that is worth 1.2 million and a mortgage of $700,000. The estate will be valued at 1.2 million not $500,000 which is the equity. If you have your estate in trust you can set things up to help reduce the taxes owed. Even if you do not have a mortgage on your home, if you have a home in Palo Alto you are very likely to have an estate worth over a million dollars because of the value of your home. You will probably benefit by talking to an estate lawyer to help structure things to get the most tax free money for your heirs. I can give you names of some excellent estate attorneys if you need a referral.
Marcy Moyer
Keller Williams Realty
www.marcymoyer.com
marcy@marcymoyer.com
650-619-9285
D.R.E. 01191194
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